Military aircraft may be configured with a number of different hardpoints (e.g., under a wing of an aircraft) that are configured to carry a load. Loads that such hardpoints may carry include fuel tanks, electronics pods, and weapons. Weapon station hardpoints may be configured to carry either air-to-air munitions (e.g., air-to-air missiles for attacking other aircraft) or air-to-ground munitions (e.g., gravity bombs, air-to-ground missiles for attacking ground targets). Hardpoints are typically limited to carrying one type of munition. The use of a single hardpoint to carry only a single type of munition is often a result of the physical limitations of the hardpoint and/or the munition. For example, bombs released from an aircraft when the aircraft is traveling at a high speed often must be forcibly ejected away from the aircraft to prevent the bomb from striking the aircraft, which may necessitate specialty bomb ejector racks that may undesirably interfere with other nearby munitions. As another example, it is generally desirable to load hardpoints in a balanced manner (e.g., the same munitions on the same location on both a left wing and a right wing) in order to keep an aircraft balanced.
Hardpoint use may be limited by a variety of factors, including weight, space, and aerodynamics. Hardpoints are often limited by space: loads hung from a hardpoint on a wing are limited because, for example, an excessively tall load may scrape on the ground during aircraft landing. Moreover, loads hung from hardpoints may cause undesirable amounts of drag on an aircraft during operation.
As military aircraft may play a variety of roles, it may be desirable to have maximal flexibility with regard to hardpoint use. For example, a particular aircraft may be configured with four hardpoints, but two of those hardpoints may be needed to carry extra fuel tanks for a long-distance mission, and the particulars of the long-distance mission may require that both bombs and missiles be carried. Conventional weapons stations and other hardpoint attachments may not provide a solution to such a circumstance.